The Life of Jesus

Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Again, I tell you truly that if two of you on the earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by My Father in heaven.

For where two or three gather together in My name, there am I with them.”

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

Jesus answered, “I tell you, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times!

Because of this, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.

As he began the settlements, a debtor was brought to him owing ten thousand talents.

Since the man was unable to pay, the master ordered that he be sold to pay his debt, along with his wife and children and everything he owned.

Then the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Have patience with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’

His master had compassion on him, forgave his debt, and released him.

But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe me!’

So his fellow servant fell down and begged him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you back.’

But he refused. Instead, he went and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay his debt.

When his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and recounted all of this to their master.

Then the master summoned him and declared, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave all your debt because you begged me.

Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on you?’

In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should repay all that he owed.

That is how My heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

When Jesus had finished saying these things, He left Galilee and went into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.

Large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there.

Then some Pharisees came and tested Him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason?”

Jesus answered, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’

and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?

So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”

“Why then,” they asked, “did Moses order a man to give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”